Mata Hari (Carmen Pont and Beltrán Martínez

Mata-Hari

Carmen Pont and Beltrán Martínez

Hello, my name is Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, better known as Mata-Hari. I was born in Leeuwarden on August 7th 1876, and I died on October 15th 1917, near Paris, shot by French authorities. I was the oldest of four siblings, my father was Adam Zelle and my mother was Antje van der Meulen, whose family was part of the Dutch bourgeoisie.

My father and mother got divorced, and shortly after, my mom died. I was one of the most famous spies of all time. At the age of 18, I answered an ad of the military captain, Rudolf McLeod, because he was searching for a wife. When I got married I was transferred with my husband, 20 years older than me, to Java (Indonesia). It was in that country, where the Holland colony captivated me with the oriental culture and I learned the dances that would later make me famous. The death of our son undermined my marriage. MacLeod started drinking and I took refuge in Indonesian culture to ease our pain.

At the beginning of the 20th century, women were not considered citizens - that is, holders of political rights - in almost any country in the world. The National Constitution of the Netherlands, sanctioned in 1853, granted the right to political participation to vote - only to male citizens.

One of the problems that I experienced in my life was, as I said, the death of my son, NormanJohn. At first it was believed that he had died of complications from the treatment of syphilis transmitted by his father, but later it was discovered that both children (Norman-John and Louise Jeanne) were poisoned in revenge against Rudolph for his mistreatment of a native servant. Miraculously Louise Jeanne was saved. This was a very bad stage of my life and my marriage, apart from being mistreated by him. After we got divorced, my former husband refused to pay support for our daughter (Louise Jeanne born in 1898) I ended up prostituting myself to survive, but I lost custody. I tried to get her back, but it was impossible.

At the end of 1904, I returned to Paris as an exotic dancer, starring in striptease shows. People loved me, they fought to get seats in the front rows in my erotic and exotic dance shows. I danced the sacred dances that I had learned with my people since childhood.

During the war, I was involved in a relationship with a Russian pilot serving with the French Army, Captain Vadim Maslov, 23 years old, he was the love of my life. In the summer of 1916, Maslov was shot down and seriously injured, so I asked permission to visit him in the field hospital. I was greeted by agents of the Deuxième Bureau (French Army Information Service) who told me that I would only be allowed to see Maslov if I agreed to spy for France. In late 1916, I traveled to Madrid, where I met the German military attaché and I offered to share French secrets with Germany in exchange for money. In January 1917, the German military broadcast radio messages to Berlin describing the useful activities of a German spy with the code name H-21, whose biography matched mine really closely. The Deuxième Bureau intercepted the messages and, therefore, the information they contained identified H-21 as Mata Hari. The messages were encrypted with a code that German intelligence knew that French had already broken, suggesting that the messages were aimed at exposing me to be arrested by the French.

On February 13th 1917, I was arrested in my room at the Hotel Elysée Palace in Paris. I was judged on July 24, accused of spying and consequently made responsible for the death of at least 50,000 soldiers. Although French and British intelligence suspected that I was spying, neither of them could present definitive evidence against me, but I admitted under questioning that I took money to work as a German spy. Sadly, I was executed by a firing squad of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on October 15, 1917 at the age of 41.

I had a very hard life. I hope that in future generations there will be gender equality, women will not be treated as objects and men will not mistreat us. Hopefully all women who know about me will agree with what I say, will start changing their present and future, and will raise their voices for women like me who are no longer here.

“The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word.”

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